Quote of the Day: Time Warner CEO on Wonder Woman’s Power to Boost the Box Office

Quote of the Day: Time Warner CEO on Wonder Woman's Power to Boost the Box Office

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes has high hopes for the “Wonder Woman” movie. At a press conference this week, Bewkes identified why he’s so confident about the superheroine’s success at the box office.

“We think this could bring an under-represented female audience to this genre that frankly has not been served well in the past and that could be exciting,” he explained.

The Mary Sue objected to Bewkes’s wording, noting that “Wonder Woman” wouldn’t mark the first time a significant female audience goes to see a genre movie of this kind.

We take their point, and will add that although women have been under-represented and under-served by Hollywood, female audiences aren’t underrepresented in terms of multiplex attendance (indeed, women account for 52% of moviegoers).

Women have always gone to see these movies — we just haven’t been able to see ourselves at the center of the stories. We do, however, think that female-centric genre flicks will attract more female viewers. And movies like “Wonder Woman” — and Marvel’s upcoming “Captain Marvel” — will encourage girls and women as wellas boys and men to see women as heroic role models.

All of this being said, it’s great to hear that Bewkes is so jazzed about the arrival of “Wonder Woman” and acknowledges that female audiences — a powerful demographic with money to spend — haven’t been adequately served by an industry that often seems to ignore their existence entirely.

So there’s pretty much an astronomical amount of pressure on Patty Jenkins, the helmer behind “Wonder Woman,” to deliver big numbers. As “Juno” screenwriter Diablo Cody has said, “If a movie starring or written by or directed by a man flops, people don’t blame the gender of the creator. It’s just kind of weird how the blame is always immediately placed on female directors.” It’s grossly unfair, but the future of many women-directed and women-centric franchises depend on this single film.

“Wonder Woman,” starring Gal Gadot, is scheduled for release on June 23, 2017.